Sarah Mills: Disconnecting from devices is the right way to reconnect
From wanting work-life balance to avoiding doomscrolling, Sarah Mills says many are ditching devices - or lessening thei...
With the City of Regina, non-profit organizations, market housing companies, and a variety of builders in the same room on Tuesday, Bill Neher said he just wanted to see connections being made.
Neher is the City of Regina’s manager of housing and attended the city’s second Regina Housing Conference.
Read more:
- Regina truck driver told police light was green before fatal crash
- ‘We woke to a thud’: Earthquake felt in Esterhazy
- Two men dead after pickup crashes into water near Elfros: RCMP
He said the conference is important because, often, market and non-market housing providers don’t get into the same room and have those kinds of discussions.
“Having them in the room together gives them a chance for those one-off conversations that maybe potentially might lead to a partnership, which would forward some of the more challenging housing, which is social housing and transitional housing,” explained Neher.
The city knows increasing the housing supply in the city, particularly social and lower-income housing, is complex, according to Neher. But he said the city wants to be part of the solution.
“In order to be successful, we need to be a partner and active in that work and trying to be a source to help move projects forward,” he said.
Neher believes the city is making a start on the housing situation in Regina, but there’s still a long way to go, including more work on infill housing.
“We have a bit of a backlog that we need to work on, but part of this conference is reinforcing the idea that it’s all hands on deck, we need everybody involved with the work,” said Neher.
Mayor Chad Bachynski said it’s amazing to see the growth from last year’s conference to this year’s.
“It’s about making connections and it’s about sharing what the city is open to, which we are open to partnership; I talked about that today. We’re open to that connection and to hearing ideas,” said Bachynski.
The first housing conference helped advance work on the housing strategy and resulted in action items that were incorporated into the strategy, according to the mayor.
“This is a chance to kind of build on that and hopefully bring in some of those partners to actually look at those actions and tackle them,” he explained.
The conference is made possible by the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund, but 2027 is the final year of funding. Bachynski said the city would continue looking for opportunities to hold the conference.
